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“Flawed” regulations that put employers and other designated bodies under a duty to share concerns about doctors’ performance and conduct could give rise to legal challenge and breach doctors’ human rights, says the Medical Defence Union (MDU).

The regulations under the Health and Social Care Act 2008, which are due to come into force in October 2010, follow concern that the lack of “joined up” information can allow incompetent or abusive doctors to go on practising for years.

Failure to pass on information was identified as a factor in the long career of Harold Shipman, the GP thought to have murdered at least 250 patients over 20 years. It was also highlighted in inquiries into the activities of Clifford Ayling, a GP, and William Kerr and Michael Haslam, two consultant psychiatrists—all of whom sexually abused patients over many …